Pauline – 52, suffered for weeks with a persistent cough, misdiagnosed as asthma

Pauline Saunders, an HR manager from Oxted, suffered with a persistent, hacking cough which her GP mistakenly diagnosed as asthma.

She was prescribed a steroid inhaler and whilst this helped ‘a tiny bit’ it did not alleviate her cough. Pauline struggled to hold a conversation as she was coughing all the time so eventually went to a private clinic for a lung function test. The specialist was able to confirm that she did not have asthma and had been unnecessarily treated with a steroid inhaler.

Pauline, was in fact, suffering from acid reflux, where the stomach acid leaks up into the oesophagus, or gullet, and causes the irritation of the tissue which can lead to a persistent cough. Pauline underwent a simple operation to treat her reflux and had the LINX® system implanted which meant her cough cleared virtually overnight.